Dictionary.com
definitions
  • synonyms

peal

[peel]
noun
  1. a loud, prolonged ringing of bells.
  2. a set of bells tuned to one another.
  3. a series of changes rung on a set of bells.
  4. any loud, sustained sound or series of sounds, as of cannon, thunder, applause, or laughter.
Show More
verb (used with object)
  1. to sound loudly and sonorously: to peal the bells of a tower.
  2. Obsolete. to assail with loud sounds.
Show More
verb (used without object)
  1. to sound forth in a peal; resound.
Show More

Origin of peal

1350–1400; Middle English pele, akin to peal to beat, strike (now dial.)
Related formsin·ter·peal, verb (used with object)un·pealed, adjective
Can be confusedpeal peel

Synonyms

4. reverberation, resounding, clangor.
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words

soundresoundingcrashringingroarthunderrumblereverberationcarillontintinnabulationringblastclamorclapbellcracktollresonateknellresound

Examples from the Web for pealing

Historical Examples

  • London was merry-making, with bonfires and pealing of bells, when Will Peake and I entered it.

    Sir Ludar

    Talbot Baines Reed

  • It was not the shouts of men, nor the detonation of guns, nor the pealing of the thunder.

  • Their pealing screams often split the silence of the valley.

    The Yellow Horde

    Hal G. Evarts

  • Another flash, another roar, another crash, a pealing of strange thunder.

    Sea-Dogs All!

    Tom Bevan

  • Trumpets that mustered warriors by thousands were pealing from her walls.

    Sarchedon

    G. J. (George John) Whyte-Melville

British Dictionary definitions for pealing

peal1

noun
  1. a loud prolonged usually reverberating sound, as of bells, thunder, or laughter
  2. bell-ringing a series of changes rung in accordance with specific rules, consisting of not fewer than 5000 permutations in a ring of eight bells
  3. (not in technical usage) the set of bells in a belfry
Show More
verb
  1. (intr) to sound with a peal or peals
  2. (tr) to give forth loudly and sonorously
  3. (tr) to ring (bells) in peals
Show More

Word Origin

C14 pele, variant of apele appeal

peal2

noun
  1. a dialect name for a grilse or a young sea trout
Show More
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for pealing

peal

n.

mid-14c., "a ringing of a bell" especially as a call to church service, generally considered a shortened form of appeal (n.), with the notion of a bell that "summons" people to church (cf. similar evolution in peach (v.)). Extended sense of "loud ringing of bells" is first recorded 1510s.

Show More

peal

v.

1630s, from peal (n.). Related: Pealed; pealing.

Show More
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper